Dan and Runo's Whiskey Lullaby
by Breezyfeather
Summary: Dan goes to Runo's cafe one afternoon after he comes back from Nethia, hoping to make amends with their relationship. But has Runo given up on him? Song fic, one shot.  I DO NOT OWN THE SONG OR THE ANIME.


**Hi, it's me, Breezy. This fic I kinda decided to write while I was in the shower... I had been listening to my iPod a little bit before then, after we got back from the airport. I heard the song Whiskey Lullaby by Brad Paisley, and I knew I just had to write this one-shot! It's for Dan and Runo. I hate to do this, but I had to see how she would react... Well I know how she's going to react, I listened to the song... I highly recommend listening to it while reading.**

**Just for the record, I know that Dan isn't of drinking age in the anime yet. By Mechtanium Surge, he's only seventeen. But for the sake of this fanfiction, lets decide that he's already 21.**

**I DO NOT OWN THE SONG, THE ARTIST, OR THE ANIME.**

Dan smiled, dashing down the street. He was eager to see his girlfriend, who lived in a cafe not halfway down the road. It was called Midori Avenue, a name that Dan found rather amusing. Midori meant green, and that reminded him of Runo's eyes. At one point, he had brought this up to Runo. She had smacked him on the back of his head, embarrassed. Dan then remarked that at least it wasn't called Blue Street. Runo had decided at that moment that would be a good time to practice her chasing-people-from-the-store drill.

Dan chucked at the memory, slowing to a walk as he neared the door to her cafe. He then stopped all together, taking in the cream-colored paint. The same green awnings stuck out over the windows and the door, and the exact same brick garden was underneath those windows. Greenery grew haphazardly in those planters, almost like small, thick bushes. A rosebush was planted in the grassy area to the right of the cafe, and Dan grinned when he saw them. He was tempted to grab one and stick it in the center of the bouquet of white roses he held in his arms, but he knew that would only anger the bluenette that lived inside that cafe.

He strode forward a few feet, so that he was standing just outside of the orange frosted glass doors, but before pushing the door open, he found himself hesitating. Something stirred in his stomach, some raw, nervous feeling that twisted uncomfortably in his gut. He shivered, and the feeling was gone, and he dismissed it without a second thought. Shifting the roses to the crook of his right arm, he lifted his left hand and rested it against the class. But once again, he hesitated. What if Runo didn't want to see him? What if she hated him?

Dan shook his head, trying to clear it of his insecurities. _Come on, Dan, open that door!_ he told himself._ You're the top Bakugan Brawler on Earth, Vestal, Nethia and Gundalia combined. You can beat tyrants and conquerors. And yet, you're scared to talk to your own girlfriend? There's something wrong with that. _Dan smiled, shaking his head again. There was nothing to be afraid of! Runo may lurk behind those doors, but the worst she could do would be to smack him in the head again and ignore his phone calls for a week, right?

It took Dan a moment to compose himself, once he was sure he was convinced, and he took a deep breath. He braced his hand against the door, and before he lost his nerve, pushed against it forcefully.

Nothing prepared him for the sight he was met with.

Runo gasped, pulling her face away from the young man on the counter next to her. Dan's smile faded and the blush on Runo's cheeks grew into a heated flush from embarrassment, and her hands flew to cover her mouth. The man next to her narrowed his eyes at Dan and then shot him a cold glare. His eyes were a frosty blue, his hair a dark sea of golden tangles. His skin was pale, but not so that he looked sickly. It complemented his complexion and hair, and even the black shirt and pants he wore.

_**She put him out.**_

The roses in Dan's arms dropped to the floor with a small sound of plastic wrap being crunched, and Dan fled the building.

**_Like the burning end of a midnight cigarette._**

Dan's heart pounded, and his eyes burned. His heart beat furiously, whether from the agony of it shattering before his eyes or from the run he never would find out. He didn't look back as he sprinted down the street, not even when a familiar voice called back to him. He didn't slow at the crosswalk, nor at any other street. He didn't stop to go into his own house, or even Bakugan Interspace, where he usually tried to drown his problems in a battle. Not that he could now that he had trusted Drago to Shun for the month while he visited Runo in Wardington.

**_She broke his heart._**

Dan didn't stop running until he had reached the old stone bridge that he and Runo had battled upon. There, he stumbled down the hill, then rolled into the shadow of the cold stone archway. He sat up on the edge of the water, bracing his feet in the sand that lined the waters edge. He leaned forward, resting his arms against his kneecaps, and his shoulders shook with his sobs.

Hours passed, and once Dan had calmed himself enough, he crawled free from his hiding place with only one destination in mind.

_**He spent his whole life trying to forget.**_

Dan found himself at a bar that night, asking for a bottle of whiskey. The bartender asked for his ID and he presented it, his eyes blank with sadness. The bartender looked at Dan, at his tearstained, pale complexion, and sighed.

"She dump you?" he asked.

"Without telling," Dan said softly, and the bartender clapped a hand on his back, handing him a bottle of single-malt whiskey. He raised the bottle to his lips without hesitation, taking a deep, long sip.

**_We watched him drink his pain away, a little at a time._**

That night, at one in the morning, the bartender cleaned a glass. He watched as the now stumbling brunette struggled to form coherent sentences, a goofy smile on his lips. His eyes were unfocused, and he leaned on another drunk man, who was laughing a deep, drunken laugh. The bartender sighed, and within that half hour, Dan Kuso lay, unconscious, on the barroom floor.

The bartender watched as a few sober fellows lifted Dan's limp body and carried him to the inn above the bar, the rag in his hand still rubbing in circles on the already dry glass. He shook his head, knowing how badly heartbreak hurt. He had been there once, and he had conquered the hurt. Seeing the young Dan Kuso here, such a promising young man, wasting his life away on alcohol, he was brought back into those painful memories.

And just then, the door to the pub opened, and in walked a young, pale young woman. Her blue hair danced down her back, and she looked around nervously. Her green eyes swept the room, and the barman had a feeling he knew what she was looking for.

Her eyes found his, and she voiced the question on her lips. "Has Dan Kuso been here?"

The bartender looked at her for a moment, assuming that this girl was the one who had broken Dan's heart. He was silent, and after a minute of waiting, the girl started into the room to look herself. Then the bartender spoke up.

"He's not here."

Dan returned almost every night for two years, seeking to rid himself of the hurt that threatened to take him over. The bartender watched each time as he wasted himself away on alcohol, more specifically on the whiskey he craved. The handsome face that had come in the first night, even though wracked with pain and sadness, slowly became gaunt and haggard. The bartender gave him all the alcohol he so desired, hoping to ease the young man's pain, and also to collect the money it brought in.

_**But he never could get drunk enough to get her off his mind.**_

Each morning, Dan woke up with a throbbing headache in the same room in the pub. His eyes hurt, his body ached, and his heart felt like it had been stabbed repeatedly with a knife designed specifically for that purpose. He didn't feel anger at Runo, nor at the other man she had been with. He didn't care about any of that. He just knew, every second of every day he lived on, that Runo had betrayed him, and he would never be able to get over that agony.

_**Until the night...**_

He had taken to keeping a few bottles of whiskey in the room that had become his in his grief. Tonight, as he lay on the bed because the bartender had locked the door, he went and grabbed that bottle. He lifted the bottle to his lips and drank, not stopping until all of the alcohol was gone. And he did it again, with the other bottle he had previously hidden.

**_He put that bottle to his head, and pulled the trigger._**

His vision blurred and once again, he was pulled into blissful oblivion where he had no recollection of the one who had hurt him so. A goofy smile rose to his lips, and he stumbled through the room. But he stopped there, and the smile faded. The hurt was still there. He could still feel it burning a hole in his chest. His face contorted into an expression of agony and desperation, and he sought out the third bottle he had hidden.

_**And finally drank away her memory.**_

Dan swallowed all the alcohol in that bottle, and then he chucked it at the wall. Tears filled his eyes as it shattered, and the bartender below jumped, spilling the vodka he was pouring into a shot glass. His eyes flicked to the door above, where he knew Dan was confined. Had the young man smuggled alcohol in with him?

_**Life is short, but this time it was bigger.**_

The bartender apologized to the already drunken man who had requested the shot glass and then left his position at the bar, heading for the staircase. He knew something wasn't right. His wife noticed his hasty departure and followed, leaping up the stairs after him.

**_Than the strength he had to get up off his knees._**

The bartender quickly pulled out the ancient key in his pocket, forcing it into the lock. It turned after rattling the doorknob, and he forced the door open with a loud bang.

The bartender looked around the room wildly, finding it hard to see in the dim light of the room. His wife stopped behind him, peering over his shoulder. The two of them noticed the broken glass at the base of the far wall, and glanced at each other. Then the bartender caught sight of the young man.

**_We found him with his face down in the pillow._**

Dan lay with his face down in the pillow, his limbs splayed out limply on the bed. Clutched in his right hand was a clouded, empty bottle of whiskey, and in his left, there was a crumpled piece of paper. His clothes were wrinkled and sweat stained, and the smell in the room repulsed the bartender. However, he strode in slowly, leaving his wife to hang nervously in the doorway.

He placed a hand on Dan's arm, his eyes widening when he noticed the small chill on his skin. He grabbed the arm and gently turned the young man over. The bartender licked his lips when he saw the glassy eyed expression on Dan's face, and his wife gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. The bartender looked over at her, noticing the tears slowly making their way down her cheeks. He sighed, and his hand found the piece of paper in Dan's. He unfolded it.

**_With a note that said,"I'll love her till I die"._**

The burial took place a month later, and of course, all the brawlers attended. Dan's parents had seen it fit that all of the brawlers and their allies met to send off their friend. They had called up the Vestals and Gundalians, as well as the Nethian Castle Knights. Marucho struggled to hold back his sobs as he stood on the platform with Shun, Jake, Ren and Fabia, and Julie wore a black, chaste dress for once. There was no pink in her outfit at all, not even a heart pin or bracelet. Mira was sobbing into Ace's chest, and Keith rubbed her back gently. Jake was crying, and Fabia kept wiping the tear tracks from her cheeks. Shun was stony faced as ever, but his eyes shone with the pain of losing his best friend.

The bartender and his wife hung back, not sure if they should be there. Dan's mother had insisted that the man who had found him come to the burial and funeral. The bartender only came because his wife insisted, and because he felt he owed it to the poor sad soul, who he hoped was free of his pain now.

Runo wore a black dress, the first real dress she had worn since her encounter with Dan in the park. There was no orange or yellow in her outfit, and a veil covered her face. It hid the tears that streaked down her cheeks, and the guilt she felt at this turn of events.

_**And when we buried him beneath the willow...**_

Commander Elright nodded at the squadron of the Castle Knights that stood off to the side, their guns pointing toward the sky. Runo glanced over at them, and then let loose a fresh wave of tears as the shots cannoned toward the sky. Drago watched from his perch on Dan's coffin, silent and clearly agonized with the loss of his partner. A gentle breeze lifted the leaves upon the willow branches, and Runo exhaled painfully.

**_The angel sang a whiskey lullaby._**

**_La la la la la la laa, la la la la la la laa_**

**_La la la la la la laa, la la la la la la laa_**

**_The rumors flew, but nobody knew how much she blamed herself._**

Runo walked to the grocery store, her eyes puffy and red from crying. Women and men glanced at her, then quickly avoided her gaze. Her appearance was enough to make them look away quickly. Her hair was unkept and greasy, her clothes unwashed. She had an odor that she tried to disguise with perfume, but such products can only do so much. She applied mascara and lipstick and other makeup like mad to excuse her disheveled appearance, with her shirt crooked and her hair tangled and matted. But that didn't help her lifelessly saddened eyes.

**_For years and years she tried to hide the whiskey on her breath._**

When she made to check out with the clerk fifteen minutes later, she popped a mint into her mouth. She hoped it would disguise the alcoholic smell on her lips, but the clerk could still detect its strong scent. She rang up the girl as quickly as she could, and then Runo left to put away the groceries. But it was nearly nightfall, and that meant that soon, she would be heading to the pub once again, just like she had been for the past year.

**_She finally drank her pain away, a little at a time._**

The bartender's wife watched the young woman stumble through the pub as other drunken men grabbed at her, groping until she yelled at them in her slurred speech to let her go and struggled sluggishly. The bartender's wife watched her sadly, realizing that the same fate as Dan would befall the bluenette if she continued along this path. But she knew her husband was reluctant to withhold the relief that the alcohol must give her, unwilling to deny her the blissful unknowing.

Runo took another swig from the bottle of whiskey the bartender provided her with, seeking to rid herself of the pain and guilt that wrapped her heart in its thorny embrace. But somehow, she whenever she lost herself, Dan's image still remained there behind her eyes. The sadness at his departure, practically at her hands, still haunted her, even in her drunken state.

**_But she never could get drunk enough to get him off her mind._**

One night, two years later, in an attempt to dissuade her from drinking more of the whiskey, the bartender's wife fitted the rusty old key into the lock on Runo's door. The bluenette had long since lost her home to her depression, so the bartender's wife offered her a room here, out of pity. Each night the young woman wasted her life away on alcohol, and each night the bartender's wife had to carry her to bed. She knew it was for the woman's own good when she turned the key in the lock and walked away.

**_Until the night..._**

Runo lay on her bed for an hour after the lock clicked to let her know she was isolated, trying to fight her hopeless longing for alcohol. Trying to make herself believe that Dan was still here, that he was alive, and that he didn't waste himself the way she was doing now. That she didn't need the alcohol to satisfy her. But after that hour, she snapped, and she ducked her the bed. Her hand closed around the neck of a whiskey bottle, and she pulled it free from its dark, musty prison.

She lifted the bottle to her lips and took a sip, tentative at first, then more and more quickly, driven by hopeless yearning for oblivion. Within minutes, she had downed the entire bottle, but even then, she wasn't satisfied. She reached under for a second bottle, and her lips closed around that one, too.

_**She put that bottle to her head and pulled the trigger.**_

Runo could no longer remember why she was sad, nor what the emotion of happiness was. Sadness was her life. No blissful relief came to her, none at all. Her heart still hurt in endless agony, and she ached for the embrace of the person whose face haunted her, even in her dreams.

**_And finally drank away his memory._**

The mans name no longer reached her, and she clenched her teeth. Anger and hatred settled over her, and without thinking, she brought the near empty alcoholic bottle down on the nightstand with such force that the bottle shattered. She then jumped on the nightstand, and it crumbled beneath her.

_**Life is short, but this time it was bigger.**_

Glass was stuck into her stomach and chest now, but not very deep. Runo could feel its harsh sting, but it was dulled sufficiently by the alcohol. She let out a shriek as she lifted the empty bottle of whisky and flung it at the wall, causing it to shatter and the glass to rain down onto the mahogany floor. There was now a dent in the wall.

_**Than the strength she had to get up of her knees.**_

Runo let out a sob and staggered over to the bed side table, lifting a single picture from it. She stared at the picture, and the young, smiling face that was framed in the center. Tears streamed down her cheeks and she pressed it into her chest, numb to the points of glass stuck in her like needles. She flopped down on the pillows, and was still.

**_We found her with her face down in the pillow._**

The door burst open with a bang, and the bartender and his wife were revealed, standing there in the doorway. The bartender looked around wildly, taking in the destroyed nightstand on the ground and blinking. There was glass all over the place, and his wife pushed past him nervously, trying to find Runo. Her eyes widened and she sank to her knees, whispering, "Oh my God..." The bartender stared at Runo's form, then glanced at his wife. She was shocked, and she didn't move. The bartender moved forward after a moment, and then gently turned her over. His face contorted into a grimace, and he sighed, while his wife let out a wail.

**_Clinging to his picture for dear life._**

Runo's eyes were closed, but the tear tracks on her cheeks were still moist. Her face was paling, and the lipstick on her lips was smudged. Her mascara marked the tear tracks. And she had a death grip on the smiling photo of a younger version of herself, as well as the young Dan Kuso clad in red.

**_We laid her next to him beneath the willow._**

The brawlers all gathered again for Runo's funeral and burial. The Castle Knights didn't attend, but the Vestals, Gundalians and Fabia did. The atmosphere was the same as it had been at Dan's burial, silent and despairing. Runo laid in a white oak coffin, and Dan's picture was placed in her arms inside it. Mira leaned against Ace's chest, her tears slowly making their way down her cheeks and landing lightly on the plump cheeks of her young child. Julie was being comforted by Billy, while Shun gently rubbed Alice's shoulders through her white sweater. Black was the common color.

**_While the angel sang a whiskey lullaby._**

**_La la la la la la laa, La la la la la la laa_**

**_La la la la la la la laa, La la la la la la laa_**

**_La la la la la la la laa, La la la la la la laa_**

**_La la la la la la la laa, La la la la la la laa_**

When the ceremony was finished, and the coffin laid in the grave next to Dan Kuso's, a young child named Jenny Gilbert glanced back at the willow tree. Her eyes lifted to a branch where she thought she could hear someone singing. A wide smile broke across her face when she recognized the brown haired teen sitting there. Beautiful white wings were folded across his back, and he was dressed in white and red. A fiery halo wrapped around above his head, and when he caught sight of her looking, he grinned, winked, and held a finger to his lips. She smiled up at him and nodded.

And then a beautiful, white clad, blue haired girl appeared on the ground beneath the willow tree. Her face was alight with a radiant smile, and a golden halo floated a few inches above her head. She was beautiful, much more beautiful than she had been in years. The fabric of her white dress swirled around her legs, revealing the orange socks there. Dan smiled broadly when he saw her, and then laughed when he noticed the socks. Runo rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. Dan smirked and then jumped down from his branch. He floated down to her, and as soon as his feet touched the ground, Runo flung herself at him.

He lifted her in a circle, and she laughed. He let her down then, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. They stood there, rocking back and forth, for a minute, and Julie caught sight of Jenny hanging back.

"Jenny? What are you doing?" she asked softly, sniffing as she walked back to her daughter. Jenny glanced back at her, smiling. Julie stared at her.

"Mommy, you don't have to be sad. Dan and Runo are there, and they're really happy, see?" She pointed toward where the couple had been standing, and her face fell. She had turned just in time to watch them wave to her, then fade away. Jenny stared at them, confused, and then Julie took her hand.

"Come on, honey," she said, and they slowly walked out of the field.

**In the line "Runo gasped, pulling her face away from the young man on the counter next to her", yes, she was kissing him. Thank you for your concern, akhil100 :).**

**I started this last night at around midnight. I typed until 1:30, and then I spent the last three hours finishing this. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. I almost cried more than a few times. Thanks for reading.**

**Review!**


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